There was a claim made earlier today that the Titans have the 4th toughest schedule in the NFL this season. I also saw this same claim over at MCM earlier in the week, complete with a link to the "2008 Strength of Schedule". However, there is one problem with these claims:
They are using last year's records.
This site has been up, presumably, since early January. The number of wins/losses for each team tipped me off, as well as the lack of a tie anywhere, so I checked it out. I figured I'd look at what the real strength of schedule for each team is, just based on Opponents Win % from 2008. This isn't perfect, and I may do a little more data analysis using Opponents Opponents Win % (that isn't a typo). I figured to go easy first.
Here's the Strength of Schedule for 2008, through Week 13:
| Team | W | L | T | Win % | Team | W | L | T | Win % |
| Bengals | 91 | 52 | 1 | 0.635 | Bears | 72 | 71 | 1 | 0.503 |
| Browns | 82 | 61 | 1 | 0.573 | Patriots | 72 | 72 | 0 | 0.500 |
| Chiefs | 81 | 63 | 0 | 0.563 | Ravens | 70 | 71 | 3 | 0.497 |
| Lions | 81 | 63 | 0 | 0.563 | Texans | 71 | 72 | 1 | 0.497 |
| Packers | 81 | 63 | 0 | 0.563 | Steelers | 66 | 75 | 3 | 0.469 |
| Chargers | 80 | 64 | 0 | 0.556 | Falcons | 66 | 77 | 1 | 0.462 |
| Rams | 79 | 64 | 1 | 0.552 | Buccaneers | 66 | 78 | 0 | 0.458 |
| Seahawks | 76 | 67 | 1 | 0.531 | Cowboys | 65 | 77 | 2 | 0.458 |
| Colts | 75 | 69 | 0 | 0.521 | Dolphins | 66 | 78 | 0 | 0.458 |
| Cardinals | 74 | 69 | 1 | 0.517 | Giants | 65 | 77 | 2 | 0.458 |
| Jaguars | 74 | 69 | 1 | 0.517 | Broncos | 65 | 79 | 0 | 0.451 |
| Redskins | 74 | 69 | 1 | 0.517 | Panthers | 65 | 79 | 0 | 0.451 |
| Raiders | 74 | 70 | 0 | 0.514 | 49ers | 64 | 79 | 1 | 0.448 |
| Saints | 74 | 70 | 0 | 0.514 | Jets | 64 | 79 | 1 | 0.448 |
| Vikings | 74 | 70 | 0 | 0.514 | Titans | 58 | 85 | 1 | 0.406 |
| Eagles | 73 | 70 | 1 | 0.510 | Bills | 54 | 90 | 0 | 0.375 |
Some thoughts:
- Our Week 14 opponent, Cincinnati, has had the toughest schedule so far this season, by 9 games, over the 2nd toughest, the Browns. That's pretty astounding. This week will close the gap by 3 games, but it still be a very tough schedule.
- The most wins of any team with a tougher schedule than the Colts is 5, which is the Packers. On the flip side, the 49ers have had a fairly easy schedule, and still haven't won 5 games.
- There are the Titans, sitting at 31st. And after this week, they'll creep even closer to having the easiest schedule in the league.
- This list does not take into account any future games. This obviously means the Colts schedule will get easier over the next 3 weeks. I figured I should point this out now, to avoid confusion.